Latest DDT Stories

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Greenpeace has found banned pesticides and excessive levels of other chemicals in fresh vegetables sold by Hong Kong's two major supermarket chains.The environmental group said the two chains, ParknShop and Wellcome, had obtained more than 80 percent of their vegetable supplies from mainland China, where many banned pesticides were still illegally used, particularly in southern Guangdong province, just north of Hong Kong.The two chains, which have more than 200 retail...

OLD TOWN, Maine -- A research group is conducting studies of bald eagles to determine the levels of environmental toxins in their systems and gain a better understanding of the overall health of the bird population. As part of the project, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Steve Mierzykowski used a scalpel and medical scissors on Sunday to part a dead eagle's feathers and slice through its skin and flesh. A few well-placed snips and Mierzykowski removed the liver, placing it in a...

By Nichola Groom LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Researchers have found male fish with eggs in their testes and female sex traits off the coast of Southern California and believe that chemicals in sewage may be the cause, an author of two studies said on Monday. The two reports found the changes in fish such as English sole and California halibut, both of which are bottom dwellers, in water near where sewage is released, said Dan Schlenk, an environmental scientist at the University of...

GENEVA (Reuters) - European children are absorbing dangerous chemicals into their blood from computers, textiles, cosmetics and electrical appliances, according to a new study released on Thursday. The conservation body WWF said results of its first European Union-wide family testing survey found a total of 73 man-made hazardous compounds in the blood of grandmothers, mothers and children from 13 families in 12 countries. The highest number of chemicals, an average of 63 and including...

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Indian health authorities are using colorful aquarium fish with a taste for mosquito larve to fight a dengue epidemic that has left dozens dead, health officials said on Friday. Dengue, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, has killed about 50 people and affected hundreds in the past few weeks in the eastern state of West Bengal where authorities are struggling to control the disease. Health officials have released thousands of gambusia and guppies -- small,...

Methoxychlor (MXC), a common insect pesticide used on food crops, may interfere with proper development and function of the reproductive tract, leading to reduced fertility in women, researchers at Yale School of Medicine write in the August issue of Endocrinology. The researchers found that MXC, which was manufactured as a safer replacement for the now-banned DDT, alters the estrogen-regulated gene Hoxa10 in the reproductive tract and reduces the ability of the uterus to support embryo...

For those concerned with the troublesome effects of genetic resistance to drugs and pesticides, the conventional wisdom of evolution offers a reassuring word: In the absence of the original chemical threat, most resistance mutations would cause a disadvantage to their hosts and might be expected to quickly leave the genetic landscape once the use of a drug or insecticide is suspended or withdrawn. But emerging research suggests that such assumptions need reconsideration. Working with the...

By Michelle Rizzo NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Results of a study hint that exposure to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) increases the risk of the development of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), a blood cancer involving the lymph nodes. The incidence of NHL has risen over the past several decades but the reasons for this are unclear, study investigators explain in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology. In a population-based, case-control study, they examined the association between NHL risk...

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sea birds can spread pollutants such as mercury and pesticides across the Arctic in their droppings, Canadian researchers reported Thursday. The finding, published in the journal Science, surprised experts, who had presumed that the chemicals were being spread only by atmospheric winds. It could help explain the high levels of such pollutants found in the bodies of people living in and near the Arctic region, far from the...

WASHINGTON -- Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released on Thursday.Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They...